Where do we get our data from?

The Cloud Market provides a directory of Amazon images. We use Amazon EC2 API to get the list of all the available AMIs almost real time, which includes a name, architecture, region, owner code and a few more other things. You can keep an eye on the RSS feed of images as they are available on EC2.

For some well known images we automatically assign a name to them, based on some common patterns. For example, for Alestic images.

Then we go to the Amazon Wiki list of AMIs where there is information about a few of the images, and we parse that into our site, so you don’t have to do it twice. For instance you can find information about the Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Base Install image, and the same information in The Cloud Market.

And obviously you can always claim your images and update the information yourself, from the web interface.

It is very easy, you just signup and next to the images you’ll see a claim this image link. We’ll ask you to upload a file to S3 in the same bucket the AMI is and all your images under the same Amazon account will be associated with your TheCloudMarket user, giving you access to update the information about you, your organization (logo, description, url, twitter) and your images.

If you have paid AMIs using Amazon DevPay, then it is also very easy to allow people that landed in your AMI page to buy them in one step. Go to the Products tab in your AMI and add your Product Offering Code provided by Amazon (you can get it from the product link, ie. https://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/user/subscription/index.html?offeringCode=1FE31479).

We will automatically get the information in the product’s page and a Proceed to buy link will be displayed along with your image information, helping you connect to people searching for images. Check it out at the Amazon Demo Image for DevPay page.